How To Be a Voice Actor

Being an actor is not limited to being seen on widescreen movie houses. There exists an equally challenging world of acting. It is where voice actors dwell. As a voice actor, you may not be physically seen but your vocal emotions are of great significance in portraying the role whose voice you are dubbing. Like all other professional skill, voice acting entails training, practice and field exposure to be good at it. Here’s how to be a voice actor.

Have proper training. If you start training yourself at an earlier age, the better.

Familiarity with the abilities and skills honed in the theatre arts is a good start. Taking part in basic acting roles in your local school play will help you in your endeavor for voice acting, whose principles are not at all so different from acting.

Voice techniques can be established with the help of an expert in the field. Be bold enough to approach voice studios and inquire about available seminar workshops.

Also, there are now a variety of helpful online support systems for voice acting. You might as well try that too.

Further self-study and self-practice. After the necessary training, enhance your skills with self-help.

Consider watching popular animated films voiced by famous actors. Study their voice performances. You may try imitating each character’s varying styles, tones, intonations, vocal emotions, accents, and other vocal considerations. Carefully listen to yourself while you do this. Through constantly exposing your ears to good voice acting performances and mimicking them, you’ll easily adapt such vocal versatility yourself.

Internalizing the character for which you are voicing is indeed necessary. Try getting hold of a script and choose the character you wish to portray. Read the entire script and story to be able to actually know and feel like the character. Making believe that you are none different from the character you play is a very effective technique both in acting and voice acting.

Practical application. Never let any voice acting opportunity slide no matter how small. It can be the stepping stone for your career. Practical work experiences are a good investment for your pursuit of being an established voice actor in the future.

Get discovered: find a talent manager. Be patient in your local voice-related jobs and sooner or later, you’ll find a good voice talent manager, or he’ll find you. A manager is necessary for boosting your confidence, criticizing you constructively, activating your potentials, and leading you to where the good auditions are.

Be humble, patient and determined. Never expect instant success. Most of today’s most famous actors and actresses begun with cameo roles and sometimes humiliatingly menial roles. The same applies for voice actors. In order to succeed, you should be determined enough to deal with rejections and negative comments. You should not be discouraged, and instead see these as challenges and opportunities for improvement.

Voice acting may seem apparently simple and easy. However, the skills enhancement and trainings that you have to undergo in order to achieve that natural vocal punch is no big joke. But don’t be disheartened; if there’s a will, there’s a way. Good luck!